Saving Seafood

50 Years of Environmental Data Can Predict Health and Strandings of Sea Lions Pups in California

March 30, 2025 — For more than 50 years, NOAA Fisheries has conducted vital research on seal and sea lion populations at a remote research station on San Miguel Island, California. The long-term data set provides clues to help us understand what environmental conditions lead to malnourished California sea lion pups and increased stranding levels. This information is important for managing their populations and helping rehabilitation centers prepare for periods when sea lion pup strandings may be elevated.

Our research began on San Miguel Island in 1969 after scientists discovered a colony of northern fur seals breeding on Point Bennett the year before. This amazing uninhabited island lies 26 miles offshore of the California coast. It’s part of the Channel Islands National Park and is home to some of the largest populations of land-breeding pinnipeds in the world. Prior to this discovery, northern fur seals were last documented in California during the early 1800s—before their population was wiped out by seal hunters. Researchers began studying the new colony of fur seals along with California sea lions that also breed on the island.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Sea lions keep gorging on endangered salmon despite 2018 law

December 4, 2025 — Efforts to stop Pacific sea lions from feasting on endangered salmon and steelhead have largely failed despite millions of taxpayer dollars spent on those efforts, lawmakers were told Wednesday.

In a hearing on the efficacy of the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act adopted in 2018, witnesses told members of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries that wildlife managers have been unable to check a sustained population boom of the salmon-devouring pinnipeds — marine mammals with both front and rear flippers — that began in the 1990s.

“These animals are remarkably resilient, and they do know where their food source is,” Sam Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, told the subcommittee. “It is very difficult to encourage them to leave with anything less than force,” which usually means trap and kill.

Read the full article at E&E News

US Congress holds hearing on sea lion removals and salmon predation

December 4, 2025 — The U.S. House Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries Subcommittee held a hearing on sea lion predation on salmon and the effectiveness of killing the mammals to slow down the trend.

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), sea lions skyrocketed from a population of roughly 10,000 in the 1950s to 250,000 today. That spike has been seen as a success story for the MMPA, but it’s also had a major impact on salmon populations, which are a key food source for pinnipeds. By traveling upriver to avoid their natural predators – orcas – sea lions are able to feast on already struggling salmon populations. Since 2002, California and Steller sea lions have eaten roughly 98,000 salmon at just two sites: Bonneville Dam and Willamette Falls, Oregon.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Natural Resources plans hearings on energy, parks, fisheries

December 2, 2024 — The House Natural Resources Committee is planning a trio of hearings this week as it ramps up its activity following the extended recess during the government shutdown.

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, headed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), will hold a hearing titled “Unleashing American Energy Dominance and Exploring New Frontiers.” It’s the latest in a string of hearings focused on the new administration’s pro-development energy posture.

The Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee, led by Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), will question witnesses on sea lions eating salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Congress approved legislation in 2018 making it easier for states and tribes to kill sea lion that congregate near dams and other areas to eat the salmon.

Read the full article at E&E News

House panel OKs spending to control sea lions

July 19, 2021 — U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03) and Kurt Schrader (OR-05) on July 14 announced that a joint Community Project Funding request they supported to protect endangered salmon, steelhead and other native fish species within the Columbia River system from sea lion predation, has been approved for $892,000.

The House Appropriations Committee — Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies included the funding request as part of its Fiscal Year 2022 spending plan. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is the recipient and would use the funding on equipment and related needs to remove sea lions in the Columbia River and its tributaries as outlined by a 2018 law Herrera Beutler and Schrader advocated.

The U.S. House as a whole and the U.S. Senate also must approve the spending before it will be dispersed to WDFW.

According to a press release from the representatives, the need for sea lion removal has sharply increased in recent years, as a record number of California and Steller sea lions come to the Columbia, Willamette and Snake Rivers, posing an extreme threat to struggling salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other fish in the waterways. NOAA Fisheries says sea lions especially prey on adult salmon and steelhead migrating upriver from the ocean to Bonneville Dam, Willamette Falls and other tributaries to the Columbia River, further threatening the growth of native fish populations.

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

Is That Steller Sea Lion in Distress? Waving? Or Is It …Thermoregulation?

May 7, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Imagine that you are enjoying a wonderful day along Alaska’s rocky shores when suddenly you see something strange in the water. Is that an orca? You look through your binoculars and realize it is a Steller sea lion. You see its flipper in the air, and it only surfaces its head to breathe once in a while. Is it sick or injured? Or is this normal behavior?

NOAA Fisheries often receives reports of Steller sea lions exhibiting this behavior from concerned citizens who think the sea lion may be in distress.

“When people get hot or cold, they can remove or add a layer of clothing,” explains Steller sea lion expert Kim Raum-Suryan of NOAA’s Alaska Regional Office. “Since Steller sea lions don’t have this option, they do something a little different. They instead have this amazing ability to use thermoregulation—in other words, to regulate their own body temperature. “

A Steller sea lion’s core body temperature is about 100°F. Heat loss in water is about 25 times faster than in air. Steller sea lions deposit most of their body fat into a thick layer of blubber just under the skin. This blubber layer insulates the sea lion’s body from the cold water and provides an excess energy reserve.

However, the flippers are poorly insulated, with the blood vessels close to the surface of the skin. Sea lions often regulate their own body temperature by lifting and exposing one or more flippers as they are floating on the surface of the water. The blood vessels just under the skin dilate and either absorb heat from, or release heat to, the environment. Absorbed heat is then circulated to the rest of the body.

If you ever see a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead Steller sea lion or other marine mammal, please call the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Statewide 24-hour Stranding Hotline at (877) 925-7773. But the next time you see a sea lion or a group of sea lions with their flippers extended out of the water, there’s no need to call. This is just normal sea lion behavior … but you can wave back if you want to!

Read the full release here

NMFS authorizes sea lion removals to save Columbia River salmon

August 28, 2020 — Up to 716 sea lions may be removed from a Columbia River management zone over the next five years to reduce the animals’ impact on salmon and steelhead populations, under a new federal authorization granted to states and tribes in the U.S. Northwest.

In 2018, the U.S. Congress amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow removal of sea lions from a stretch of the Columbia River between the I-205 bridge on Portland’s east side and McNary Dam. The change also allowed for removing sea lions from Columbia River tributaries below the McNary Dam that are spawning habitat for threatened or endangered salmon and steelhead runs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Federal officials approve sea lion kill program along the Columbia River

August 18, 2020 — As expected, federal officials on Friday approved a program to kill up to 716 sea lions along a nearly 200-mile stretch of the Columbia River and its tributaries in an effort to protect salmon at risk of extinction.

The program is a significant step-up in existing efforts, and will be in place for five years.

Targeted are both Steller’s and California sea lions, which will be darted with lethal levels of tranquilizing drugs by authorized teams from states and tribes.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

West Coast Waters Shift Toward Productive Conditions, But Lingering Heat May “Tilt” Marine Ecosystem

March 6, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Burgeoning populations of anchovy and a healthy crop of California sea lion pups reflected improved productivity off parts of the West Coast in 2019. However, lingering offshore heat worked against recovery of salmon stocks and reduced fishing success, a new analysis reports.

The California Current Ecosystem Status Report explains that ocean conditions off the West Coast remain unusually variable. This has been the case since the arrival of a major marine heatwave in 2014 known as “The Blob.” NOAA Fisheries’ two West Coast laboratories, the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Southwest Fisheries Science Center, issue the report each year to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

“There is not a real clear picture here,” said Chris Harvey, co-editor of the report developed by the two laboratories’ Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach. The approach integrates physical, biological, economic, and importantly social conditions of the California Current marine ecosystem into the decision-making process. “On the one hand, we have a lot of anchovy out there. On the other hand, we also have a lot of warm water. That is not usually a sign of improved productivity.”

Read the full release here